Garrett Graff, after reading our scathing indictment, last night talked to Mark Warner. “Why the hell did you drop out?” he screamed at the ex-Virginia governor. “You royally screwed up my book!”

OK, we jest.

But Graff truly did speak to Warner about why his decision came so early. “He explained that everything was moving quickly and that to be fair to his staff and supporters he needed to move sooner,” Graff told us. “I’ve been on the trail with him several times before — as recently as a month ago in Iowa — and it’s been pretty obvious that he was vacillating a bit in whether to run. He really cares about his family and, since he’s worth north of $100 million, he never has to do something he doesn’t really want to do.”

As for how the drop-out will affect Graff’s book, he said that “Warner was never the main focus, just a part of the larger story about how politics is changing to meet the challenges of a new economy.”

In this day and age, we suggest that Graff simply turn another page.